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CPS CEO Claypool Announces Record First Day Attendance

Smooth Start to School Year With Proactive Community Outreach Effort

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Wednesday, September 9, 2015

For more information, contact:
CPS Office of Communications

CHICAGO – Chicago Public Schools today announced that a record 94.8 percent of Chicago students attended school on the first day of class. Two schools – Edison Park Elementary and Edgar Allen Poe Classical School – had perfect attendance.

“I want to congratulate the students, parents, teachers and principals who helped kick off a strong, promising start to the school year,” said Mayor Rahm Emanuel. “This will help us keep up the momentum of rising test scores and graduation rates and is a wonderful example for our youngest learners who are just beginning school in our newly expanded pre-k program.”

“Students who are in class on the first day of school will learn more and perform better,” said CPS CEO Forrest Claypool. “We’re grateful to the parents, community partners and students who made an effort to get to school ready to learn on the first day.”

“After traveling all over the city on the first day of school, I could see the enthusiasm in our students and their parents for starting this school year right, and I’m encouraged that the first day got off to such a strong start,” said CPS Chief Education Officer Janice K. Jackson. “At CPS, we’re all focused on accelerating our progress, building on the gains we’ve made in the past four years.”

Last year, 93.7 percent of students attended on the first day of school.

This year, CPS embarked on one of its most proactive efforts ever to inform families that school was starting on Sept. 8. The District worked in coordination with Chicago’s professional athletes and teams to raise awareness of the new school year with videos on social media, public service announcements, robo calls, yard signs and tweets. (A list of participating athletes can be found below.) Digital media outreach in both English and Spanish resulted in more than 1 million impressions, and Chicago’s first day of school efforts were so strong that they were trending nationally on Twitter on the first day of school.

CPS normally focuses back-to-school efforts on students who will be attending a new school. This year, the district expanded that universe to include students who missed the first day of school last year and who had more than nine unexcused absences.

Back To School Outreach highlights:

5,000 yard signs this year vs. 3,000 last year.

CPS staff attended 95 community festivals this year vs. 80 last year.

CPS staff and volunteers made 100,000 phone bank calls this year vs. 40,000 last year.

CPS staff, community organizations and volunteers made 15,000 home visits this year vs. 8,000 last year.

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Chicago Public Schools is the third largest school district in the United States with more than 600 schools and serves 371,000 children. Our vision is that every student in every neighborhood will be engaged in a rigorous, well-rounded instructional program and will graduate prepared for success in college, career and life.